


Reset

by ladybubblegum



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It, Saving Allison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 12:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2812352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladybubblegum/pseuds/ladybubblegum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia's going to save Allison. Allison is not allowed to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reset

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for fayemelissa for the Teen Wolf Femslash Exchange. I tried to make it porny for you but I couldn't make it work. :(
> 
> I had a completely different (and much bigger) project in mind for this exchange, but halfway through writing it I realized it wouldn't be done in time. I'm still working on that piece, and will post it as soon as it's done.
> 
> Prompt: one rescuing the other, sharing a bed, cuddling, bi characters, love confessions

She found it on eBay, of all places.

The spell in the book she stole from Deaton’s office was clear--it wouldn’t work without the beetle thorax. Specifically, the thorax of a golden beetle. From Mesopotamia. This was probably why time travel wasn’t actually a thing.

She’d checked every vaguely New Age-y store on the West Coast, and called every one of them in the rest of the country. It wasn’t until a very low and desperate point at 3:30 in the morning that she even thought to Google the damn thing and found the auction. Lydia found herself the proud owner of one Mesopotamian Golden Beetle Thorax (Lightly Used) an hour and $250 later.

She didn’t have a single doubt until she sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor with the ingredients all laid out in front of her. She’d never done a spell before. Did the banshee powers even make her magical? If she did manage to make it work, what happened to past Lydia when she got there? Was there a time limit? Would she be forced back to the future after a couple of hours, a couple of minutes? Would she have to live all those months again? Would she have to avoid herself the entire time?

She thought of Allison, of her smile, of the way her hair looked in the sunlight. She pushed the doubts away.

She failed to save Allison once. She’d be damned if she failed again. This was happening.

With a deep breath, she began.

\---

For some reason, she’d expected to open her eyes and see Oak Creek, but she really should have expected her bedroom, minus seven months.

She fought against the nausea and dizziness that rushed her as she stood, grabbing at the corner of her desk to keep from falling over. She checked her watch. 4:25 p.m. If she’d done the spell right, her past self should be in the middle of being terrorized by the nogitsune, and Allison was waiting somewhere for sunset, waiting to rush out to save her, crafting the arrows that would change everything.

She had half an hour before the sun set.

Her car wasn’t in the driveway, having been stolen by the demon and abandoned. She called a cab and gave him an extra $40 to loosen his stance on road laws. The 35-minute trip look less than 20.

She got there just as the last bit of orange bled out of the sky, obviously early. This was the part she wasn’t sure about. The last time she did this, she was trapped in a basement. What time did they arrive? When would the Oni show up? At what point was she safe to step in?

Most importantly--what the hell was she going to do?

She paced back and forth in front of the gates for a minute or two before she remembered that technically, the nogitsune was still wandering around--if it noticed her, this was all for nothing. She ducked into some nearby bushes and hoped she wasn’t spotted.

She checked her phone. The sun had set ten minutes ago, which meant the others must have started making their way to the camp. Her mind raced; she needed to come up with a plan, and quickly. Strategy had always been more Stiles’ thing.

It was probably best to wait until after the big fight started, to let Scott and Stiles find her past self. Then she could slip in, maybe get a sword from Kira or wait for one of the Oni to drop one. Then find Allison. Of course, this was all dependent on whether or not she could actually navigate the fight without dying.

She heard the cars screaming down the street long before they actually came into her field of vision. She ducked down further into the bushes, praying they wouldn’t look too closely at their surroundings as they poured out of their cars, gathering at the gate.

And then she saw Allison.

It was like seeing a ghost, or watching a dream unfold. She looked at beautiful as ever, and suddenly it was like Lydia couldn’t help herself. Before she could think about the consequences, she stumbled out of the scarce bushes and toward the small group.

“Allison!” she cried, voice breaking. Everyone turned to look at her, but she only had eyes for Allison, who darted forward to meet her.

“Lydia? How, how did you--”

The rest of the question was lost between Lydia’s lips. Allison froze for a few seconds before responding, slipping her arms around Lydia’s waist and pulling her closer. Lydia spared a few moments to think about what the hell she was going to do about the fact that her past self was probably still in the basement before she felt it--a strange blending of memories in her head, her two timelines merging slowly. There were suddenly fewer memories of that basement then there had been before, and somehow she knew that the Lydia down there was vanishing. It was only her here, now.

“Um. Guys?”

The moment was broken by Scott’s confused voice, and they pulled back from the kiss. Allison looked shellshocked, but not unpleased. She smiled at Lydia slowly, unsurely.

“I am so happy to see you,” Lydia told her breathlessly. “I’m so happy you’re okay.” Her eyes watered as she realized she did it. Allison was really standing in front of her, whole.

Allison laughed. “You’re happy _I’m_ okay? You’re the one who was kidnapped by an evil fox spirit.”

“Uh, Lydia?” The two girls turned toward Scott, who looked almost sad to be interrupting the moment. “I’m really glad you’re safe, but there’s still the nogitsune. And Stiles isn’t getting better.”

He was right. Stiles looked as awful as he had the night she watched him hold a katana to his gut, trying to will himself to push it in. Now that she’d interrupted the events that had led to the nogitsune’s death, she wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. An ugly thought crossed her mind. Had she saved Allison just to sacrifice Stiles? Was this how the universe was going to balance everything out? Was one of her friends doomed to die?

If they were, it wasn’t going to happen without a fight. And she had something she didn’t the first time around.

Knowledge.

“Is it still here?” Issac asked, looking at her. “Should we try to find it?”

“No,” she answered quickly. There was absolutely no way she was letting any of her friends stay here tonight. “No, we regroup for now. Stiles will be fine until tomorrow.”

Scott frowned. “How do you know that?”

“Just trust me,” she insisted.

“Lydia, if you found something out, please share it,” Kira said softly.

Scott nodded. “If the nogitsune is here, I don’t want to leave unless we’re absolutely sure Stiles is safe.”

Lydia sighed. If she knew Scott, then she knew he wouldn’t leave this place without a good explanation.

“Okay, so this is kind of a long story…”

\---

She convinced them to let her tell most of it on the way back home. Apparently "If we stay here, Allison is going to die" was a pretty good motivator. She rode with Allison and Isaac, and talked Stiles into letting Scott drive his Jeep home. She promised she'd put them on speaker so they could hear, too.

"So...you came from the future?" Stiles' exhausted, tinny voice echoed from her phone. "Why?"

"I'm getting there," Lydia snapped. "In my timeline, something happened tonight."

"I died," Allison said quietly from the driver's side, eyes firmly on the road. "You mentioned something earlier."

"Yes," Lydia replied, staring intently at her best friend as if she were going to vanish before her eyes. "And now she didn't."

"What does that mean for us?" Scott asked. "I'm happy no one's dead, don't get me wrong, but you said we beat the nogitsune. What happens now that it's different?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But I know who to ask."

Allison frowned at her, confused.

“I got the spell from a book in Deaton’s office,” Lydia explained. “If anyone would know where to go from here, it would be him.”

“We’ll head there now,” Scott said. “If anything, the place is protected, so we’ll be safe there if the nogitsune decides to make a move.”

“Meet you there,” Lydia told him before ending the call. She turned to Allison and smiled. “Did I tell you it’s really good to see you?”

Allison smirked. “You might have gotten that message across.” Lydia felt her cheeks turn pink. “So...was that a ‘thank god you’re okay’ kiss?”

“No,” Lydia replied bluntly. She’d rehearsed this conversation in her head too many times to be anything but honest. “It was a...’thank god you’re finally in front of me so I can kiss you like I’ve always wanted’ kiss.”

“You’ve never said anything.”

Lydia’s eyes dropped to her fingers, playing with the sleeves of her sweater. “I thought I’d have more time. We both had other people and I--I told myself the time wasn’t right. And then there wasn’t any more.”

“I think I’m familiar with that feeling.” Allison said softly.

“I don’t want to screw things up with us,” Lydia continued. “But you were gone for so long and then tonight you were just right there in front of me. Even if you’re not interested, I had to tell you.”

“Of course I’m interested.”

Now that just threw her right off.

Allison laughed at Lydia’s flabbergasted look. “I’ve had a thing for you since we met, Lydia. But you’ve always had someone. You’ve never even hinted that you were even into women, so the idea of you being into me was completely out of the question.”

“But you’re--you’ve never said anything!”

“There was a girl, back at my last school,” Allison told her, “I think my mom knew about her. She couldn’t get us out of that city fast enough.”

“So basically,” Lydia said, the weight on her chest lifting just a little, “We could have been kissing like, way before this?”

“I guess so.” Allison turned into the driveway of the animal clinic, and Lydia knew their conversation was going to have to be put on hold.

“My mom should still be away,” she said as Allison stopped and parked the car. Allison looked at her and tilted her head, waiting for Lydia to continue. “After Deaton’s, you should stay at my house. Even if it’s just to talk.”

Allison smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

\---

Alan Deaton was silent for a long while after Lydia told him the story.

“Well?” she prompted after letting him digest it significantly. “Please say something.”

“I honestly don’t know what to tell you,” he replied, shrugging. “I’m shocked you’re still alive, for one. There’s a reason people aren’t time travelling left and right. If you did the spell I think you did, then you standing in front of me right now is a miracle.”

“Last time, the nogitsune used me to tell when the oni were close enough for him to take control of. He used the chaos and confusion of Allison’s death to slip away,” Lydia told him. “Now neither of those things happened.”

“Actually,” Kira interrupted, frowning at her phone. “One of them did. He has the oni. My mom’s on her way here.” A feeling of dread settled over the group.

“This might be good, though, right?” Allison asked. “I mean, it was the oni that made him so cocky. Things might go as planned anyway.”

“You might be right,” Deaton said, nodding. “The universe doesn’t like alterations like this too much. If it can continue on the same, or at least similarly, then it will try. It will maintain balance wherever possible.”

“We have to do it tomorrow,” Lydia said. “That’s when we make our move.”

\---

The house was the same but not the same. The furniture hadn’t changed over the months, but little things that Lydia normally wouldn’t notice suddenly stuck out. Clutter that hadn’t been there before. Her new boots missing from near the front door.

Allison’s hand on her shoulder broke her out of her thoughts. “Are you okay?”

Lydia smiled at her. “You’re here. So yeah.” Her hands were shaking, either from nerves or the sudden lack of adrenaline.

“Hey,” Allison shut the front door behind her then spun Lydia around, resting their foreheads together. “I’m here. We’re here. It’s gonna be okay.”

Lydia sighed, gripping Allison’s hands in her own. “Come upstairs with me?”

Her bedroom gave her the same dizzy feeling of same-but-not-same as the downstairs did. She’d gotten new sheets and blankets a few months after Allison died, had painted the room a few months after that. It was like a reset button had been pressed on her entire life. In a way, she supposed it had.

Once in the room, Allison shrugged off her jacket and kicked off her shoes. Seeing her best friend disrobe in her bedroom shouldn’t have given her such filthy thoughts--it had happened so many times--but now things were different. She was allowed to think those things. Allison was okay with her thinking them.

Allison caught her staring and smirked. “See something you like?”

“You know I do,” Lydia replied playfully, then gestured to the closet. “There are some sweats and t-shirts that should fit you, if you want.” She turned and grabbed her nightgown off of the chair to her vanity and began undressing herself.

The second she slipped the silky gown over her head and let it fall down to her thighs, she felt Allison’s arms wrap around her waist from behind. “You know, nothing has to happen tonight. We could just sleep.”

Lydia’s hands circled Allison’s wrists where they rested against her abdomen and squeezed. “I thought about this for so long. The second I found that spell, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do when I found you. What I would want if I could have you here.”

“Come on.” Allison let her go and took her by the hand, leading her over to the bed. She pulled down the comforter and sheets, slid in and over, pulling Lydia along with her and fitting the comforter around them when they were both settled in. Lydia ended up pressed up against Allison’s side, her head on Allison’s chest, strong arms circled around her, one on her waist and the other wrapped around her shoulders. It was the warmest Lydia had felt since Allison died.

“I missed you,” she whispered, her voice breaking. She felt tears coming but fought not to let them fall. She didn’t want to ruin the moment by crying everywhere. Allison ran her fingers up and down Lydia’s arm comfortingly, grounding her. Lydia felt lips press against the top of her head. “I’m so tired. Like, not even physically, just...mentally, emotionally. I think I could sleep for a week.”

“When everything is over, we’ll talk,” Allison told her. “We’ll figure things out. For now, just rest. We’ve all had a really long day.”

“I’m worried,” Lydia continued. Her hands were still shaking. “I’m worried that it wasn’t enough. I’m worried Stiles is going to die because of what I did. I’m worried that we all will.”

“Shhh, we’ll worry about that in the morning,” Allison whispered into her hair, carding her fingers through it. “Just sleep now.”

She didn’t know what was going to happen. She didn’t know how they were going to defeat the nogitsune and save Stiles. She didn’t know if she just made everything worse.

"I love you."

But in Allison’s arms, she felt like she could rule the world.

"I love you, too."

Lydia drifted off to the sound of her best friend’s heartbeat.

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> come bug me on [the tumblr](ladybubblegum.tumblr.com).


End file.
